Everyone longs for the Name — and the treasure is in this very body.
The Arc
A nine-verse Ashtapadee that opens with a census of longing and closes with a map to the mine. Verse 1: everyone longs for the Name — the one thirst wearing a thousand disguises — but it is given by Mercy; without it, only pain. The Pause names the two attributes that make Sanctuary absolute: infinite (no case too large) and merciful (no case turned away). Verse 2 states the geometry of Ik Onkar: inside and outside, One — the world's variety His artistry, not His competition; whom shall we call second? Verses 3–5 hold the hymn's great mystery in a diptych with a dark panel: understanding and non-understanding are both His making, yet falsehood is really driven from the Court; some are pure from the primal beginning, attached to the Name by His own Hand; some are crooked and reeling, strayed by His own letting — compass, map, and brakes all lost — yet even the far country is His country. Verse 6 answers the dark panel instrument by instrument: the Glance plants loving faith, and truth, contentment, and discipline are re-issued to the mind that stays within earshot of the Word. Verse 7 retires the scholar's route: reading and discourse orbit Him; His measure is received from the living Guru. Verse 8 gives the final instruction and the raag's plainest secret: refine this mind and body with the Word — for within this very body is the treasure of the Name, found through the Infinite Guru's love.
Key Vocabulary
Lochdee — longing (verse 1): the universal thirst beneath all cravings' disguises.
Antar baahar ayk — inside and outside, One (verse 2): Ik Onkar as geometry; anxiety requires a second, and there is none.
Bujh-naa / abujh-naa — understanding and non-understanding (verse 3): both His making; the dark thread in the weave on purpose.
Dhur — from the primal origin (verse 4): the souls born already facing the light.
Sidh / budh / sanjam — intuition, understanding, restraint (verses 5–6): the soul's compass, map, and brakes — lost in the reeling, re-issued by the Glance.
Sodh — assay, refine, search through (verse 8): the jeweler's verb for working the mind-body ore.
Translation Notes
Verse 3 — dargeh maar kadhay koorhi-aar. "The wicked You strike down and drive out of Your Court": koorhi-aar is precisely "dealers in falsehood" (from koorh, the false) — the charge is trading in unreality, not generic wickedness. This keeps the verse aligned with the raag's Sach/koorh axis.
Verse 5 — aap khu-aa-ay. "The Lord Himself has led them astray": as in the neighboring hymns' aap-litanies, the straying is within the one Will — read whole (with verse 6), this is mercy, not condemnation: the reeling are His in the far country, and no second kingdom holds them.
Themes and Cross-Connections
This hymn gathers the block's grace-theology into its most balanced statement: the diptych of verses 4–5 (born facing the light / strayed into reeling) with verse 6's instrument-by-instrument restoration is the Third Guru's fullest treatment of the question the upside-down vessel image answers — why grace seems unevenly received — while verse 3 refuses to resolve the deeper mystery (all is His making; falsehood is still expelled) into either fatalism or works-religion. Verse 2's "whom shall we call second?" belongs beside "whom shall we call bad?" two hymns earlier: the same non-dual logic, aimed now at anxiety instead of judgment. Verse 7 restates the raag's har ras and book-limit teachings in the gentlest form. And verse 8's treasure-in-this-body is the block's closing coordinate — the same address given by the everything-is-within hymn, here stamped with the method (sodh — refine with the Word) and the lamp (the Guru's love).
For Raag Aasaa
Aasaa ends its Third-Mehl teaching where all its roads have pointed: the one longing under every craving, the one Presence inside and outside, and the treasure hidden in the seeker's own body — with mercy infinite enough that even the reeling in the far country remain within reach of the Glance.
Everyone longs for the Name — and the treasure is in this very body.
The Arc
A nine-verse Ashtapadee that opens with a census of longing and closes with a map to the mine. Verse 1: everyone longs for the Name — the one thirst wearing a thousand disguises — but it is given by Mercy; without it, only pain. The Pause names the two attributes that make Sanctuary absolute: infinite (no case too large) and merciful (no case turned away). Verse 2 states the geometry of Ik Onkar: inside and outside, One — the world's variety His artistry, not His competition; whom shall we call second? Verses 3–5 hold the hymn's great mystery in a diptych with a dark panel: understanding and non-understanding are both His making, yet falsehood is really driven from the Court; some are pure from the primal beginning, attached to the Name by His own Hand; some are crooked and reeling, strayed by His own letting — compass, map, and brakes all lost — yet even the far country is His country. Verse 6 answers the dark panel instrument by instrument: the Glance plants loving faith, and truth, contentment, and discipline are re-issued to the mind that stays within earshot of the Word. Verse 7 retires the scholar's route: reading and discourse orbit Him; His measure is received from the living Guru. Verse 8 gives the final instruction and the raag's plainest secret: refine this mind and body with the Word — for within this very body is the treasure of the Name, found through the Infinite Guru's love.
Key Vocabulary
Translation Notes
Themes and Cross-Connections
This hymn gathers the block's grace-theology into its most balanced statement: the diptych of verses 4–5 (born facing the light / strayed into reeling) with verse 6's instrument-by-instrument restoration is the Third Guru's fullest treatment of the question the upside-down vessel image answers — why grace seems unevenly received — while verse 3 refuses to resolve the deeper mystery (all is His making; falsehood is still expelled) into either fatalism or works-religion. Verse 2's "whom shall we call second?" belongs beside "whom shall we call bad?" two hymns earlier: the same non-dual logic, aimed now at anxiety instead of judgment. Verse 7 restates the raag's har ras and book-limit teachings in the gentlest form. And verse 8's treasure-in-this-body is the block's closing coordinate — the same address given by the everything-is-within hymn, here stamped with the method (sodh — refine with the Word) and the lamp (the Guru's love).
For Raag Aasaa
Aasaa ends its Third-Mehl teaching where all its roads have pointed: the one longing under every craving, the one Presence inside and outside, and the treasure hidden in the seeker's own body — with mercy infinite enough that even the reeling in the far country remain within reach of the Glance.
Last updated: 2026-07-03